The Liberty Lady Flames basketball team is the women's basketball team that represents
Liberty University
Liberty University (LU) is a private Baptist university in Lynchburg, Virginia. It is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (Southern Baptist Convention). Founded in 1971 by Jerry Falwell Sr. and Elmer L. Towns, Liberty i ...
in
Lynchburg,
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. Since 2018, the Lady Flames have competed in the
ASUN Conference
The ASUN Conference, formerly the Atlantic Sun Conference, is a collegiate athletic conference operating mostly in the Southeastern United States. The league participates at the NCAA Division I level, and began sponsoring football at the Divisio ...
. They are currently coached by
Carey Green
Carey Jay Green (born March 31, 1956)''07-08 Liberty University Women's Basketball Media Guide'' p. 53 is the current head coach of the Liberty University women's basketball team. He has one of the highest winning percentages of NCAA active women ...
.
History
Liberty was founded in 1971 as Lynchburg Baptist College, making it the second-youngest institution in NCAA Division I (only
Florida Gulf Coast University
Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) is a public university in Lee County, Florida. It is part of the State University System of Florida and is its second youngest member. The university was established on May 3, 1991, and is accredited by the ...
, founded in 1991, is younger). While men's basketball began play a year later, women's basketball did not start play until 1975, the same year in which the school changed its name to Liberty Baptist College and joined the
National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...
(NAIA). In 1980, LBC joined the NCAA as a
Division II member while retaining its NAIA membership. In 1983, LBC gave up its NAIA membership and moved full-time to D-II. They were members of the East Coast Athletic Conference (for a brief amount of time in 1983) and the Mason-Dixon Athletic Conference (1983–88) in their time in Division II. During that time, LBC adopted its current name of Liberty University in 1985.
Liberty joined Division I in 1988, followed by a move to the Big South Conference in 1991. After a 5–22 season in 1995–96, the Lady Flames went 22–8 the next year while running the table and winning the Big South championship, their first ever conference title in history along with the bid to go to the NCAA tournament; they were beaten by Old Dominion 102–52 in the first round. The following year, they set the school record for most wins in program history along with a second straight Big South Tournament title and NCAA appearance with an undefeated regular season and wins in the conference tournament to go 28–0 before a loss to Tennessee 102–58 in the first round of the NCAA tournament (they tied the record for wins in 2008, going 28–4, including a Big South title). They have won just two NCAA Tournament games (2005), advancing to the Sweet Sixteen as a #13 seed after beating Penn State 78–70 and DePaul 88–79 before losing to #1 LSU 90–48 in the regional semifinals. They have also made an appearance in the WNIT (2016), losing to Villanova 67–51 in the first round. As of the end of the 2015–16 season, the Lady Flames have an all-time record of 674–469.
NCAA tournament results
Footnotes
References
External links
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